NIE and Densho: The WWII Odyssey of King County's Japanese Americans

8 APRIL 12, 2015 | Sponsored Newspapers In Education Content Japanese Americans in Seattle worked hard to rebuild their lives and communities after the war. To some observers, they had succeeded, with media accounts in the 1950s and 1960s dubbing Japanese Americans a “ model minority . ” But under the surface, questions remained. Inspired by the social movements of the 1960s, Japanese Americans began to ask the question, “What were the real reasons for the wartime incarceration?” This led to a U.S. government commission that found that there was “no military necessity” and that the root causes of the incarceration were “racial prejudice, wartime hysteria and a lack of political leadership.” Both Akiko and Shosuke drew on their wartime experiences in their postwar life and work. Akiko Kurose became an acclaimed schoolteacher and peace activist. She wanted her students “to always realize that, not to get involved when you should get involved is an act of violence. And that you should always work for peace.” The Aki Kurose Middle School in Seattle is named after her. After years in New York and Denver, Shosuke Sasaki moved back to Seattle in 1970 upon his retirement. He became one of the leaders of the Seattle Evacuation Redress Committee (SERC) , and worked to secure monetary reparations from the federal government for the unwarranted wartime incarceration. Shosuke’s efforts helped to pave the way for, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 , which brought a presidential apology and reparations payments of $20,000 for each surviving Japanese American inmate. Remembering Wartime Incarceration Since the 1980s, Japanese Americans have formed many organizations that aim to keep the memory of the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans alive. Many of these organizations commemorate the anniversary of Executive Order 9066 every February 19 and often speak out about issues of racial injustice. Densho is one of those organizations. Densho (a Japanese term meaning ‘to pass stories to the next generation’) is a Seattle-based nonprofit that encour- ages the examination of democracy and the responsibilities of citizenship in our increasingly global society. Formed in 1996, Densho maintains an online archive that includes over 825 video interviews, most with former inmates of the concentration camps; over 50,000 photos, documents, and newspapers; and an online encyclopedia on the Japanese American wartime experience. The quotations and profiles of Akiko Kato Kurose and Shosuke Sasaki come from interviews in the Densho Digital Repository . Sasaki lived in Seattle until his death in 2001 at age 90. His interviews were conducted in 1992 and 1997. Kurose died at the age of 73 in 1998 after a 16-year battle with cancer. Her interviews took place in 1997. For more information on the wartime experience of Japanese Americans, including videos, an online course, links to other sources, and a bibliography, see Densho.org/Times . This material is based upon work assisted by a grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of the Interior. This material received Federal financial assistance for the preservation and interpretation of U.S. confinement sites where Japanese Americans were detained during World War II. Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, as amended, the U.S. Department of the Interior prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability or age in its federally funded assisted projects. If you believe you have been discriminated against in any program, activity, or facility as described above, or if you desire further information, please write to: Office of Equal Opportunity National Park Service, 1849 C Street, NW Washington, DC 20240. Shosuke Sasaki Akiko Kato Kurose Presented by: Special thanks to: Seattle Public Schools Archives, Visible Thinking Project of the Harvard Graduate School of Education INSPIRING STUDENTS TO LEARN Courtesy of the Library of Congress. LESSONS FROM THE PAST